Whole30 wrapup

There have been a million ways that have gone through my head as to how to begin this post. But I’ll start here: Minimalism is fashionable, trendy and hip right now, especially in regard to stuff. And I’ve written plenty about relationships to stuff. But really, the primary thing that matters in minimalism is you. And if you’re not taking care of yourself, the stuff really doesn’t matter. So this is why I started the Whole30 diet on January 2nd....which means today is DAY THIRTY!!

Before I dive into the diet and my review, a bit of my backstory. To be absolutely honest (and there will be real talk here), I had an addiction to food. Food was my friend. Food never laughed at me, never let me down, and was always there for me. When I was younger, I kept moving, riding my bike, playing sports, but that problem was lurking below the surface. Cookies, ice cream, seconds on meals, all of that was there. But, in my physical activity, I was burning plenty of it off. And of course, then came.....the dreaded HUSKY size jeans. And then when I started high school, I went from 175 my freshman year to 225 my senior year.....and it wasn’t from hitting the weights. It was hitting the TWENTY piece chicken nuggets and super sized fries from McDonalds when I was in musicals my junior and senior years of high school. It was giving up completely on exercise and becoming sedentary. College was worse. A cafeteria where you could eat as much as you want? YES PLEASE! It was a fat boy’s dream. I had Mountain Dew for breakfast, lunch and dinner (literally) desserts and other food galore. I went from 225 to 275 when I graduated. But all of that paled in comparison to what happened between graduating college and living on my own. The highest I saw on the scale was 330. But I’m sure it was higher. I’d eat 2 frozen pizzas, chase it with a container of ice cream and be happy. I’d eat a dozen donuts for breakfast. And so on. I’m embarrassed to see this all typed out in front of me. But that was who I was. Once I got married, we started to make healthier choices and because we were having trouble getting pregnant, we both started the South Beach Diet. Which led to 2 beautiful daughters. What has happened over the past 14 years is that I’ve lost 15 pounds, gained 10, lost 10, gained 15, lost 20, gained 10. Back and forth.

In the fall, I really started focusing in on exercise, specifically walking. I was feeling great, eating pretty healthy (minus the bags of tortilla chips here and there in an evening) and was making progress. Then December hit. While I didn’t hit the sweets too hard, I stopped exercising. And by the end of December, I felt horrible. I needed to do something different. I turned 40 in September, and my dad passed away last March. I had to start getting really serious about my health so that I can be there, God willing, for my girls and grandchildren. I had friends that had done Whole30 and I started looking into it.

How to describe Whole30? Crazy, insane, stringent, amazing, life-changing and beneficial. The simplest way to describe it is that you can eat meat, fruit, veggies, and spices. You don’t get to eat beans, peanuts, grains, dairy, or alcohol. And it’s all about looking at the labels of food. No added sugar, no added anything. Have you read labels? Do you know how much junk is added to our food? For example, I love bacon. And it’s allowable, without sugar....And most bacon has BROWN sugar added to it!! I broke down and tried turkey bacon, and in the end, I just got ground turkey, seasoned it with homemade taco seasoning, and added that to my eggs for breakfast. AMAZING!!

Now to the details. On January 1st, I stepped on the scale and weighed 280.6 pounds. This morning, 31 days later, I weighed 260.2 pounds. TWENTY POINT SIX POUNDS LOST! I can’t believe it. And yes, my clothes fit better. Clothes that I couldn’t fit into, or were tight, now fit comfortably. I have to wear a belt daily. I’ve had people tell me regularly that I’m looking really good and that I’m losing weight....although I did shave my beard in early January and no said anything about that! :-) But over and above the scale, here’s the biggest and best takeaways. I feel amazing. I am more focused. I am less tired. I have accomplished a lot over this month. I feel creative. My relationship with food has been readically changed.  And this is the exact opposite of how I felt at the end of December, just 1 month ago. And that’s been with minimal exercise. However, over the past 3 days (including today), I’ve started the couch to 5K app and have seen my time per mile go from between 17-18 minutes, to 15 minutes, 14:58 and 14:40 over the first 3 days.

Do I recommend Whole30 to everyone? Nope. It’s your choice. It’s very restrictive. I had people telling me, “Day 4 is going to be the hardest. You’re going to have a crash”. I didn’t. It went a whole lot easier that I thought it would. I thought giving up dairy would be hard. I grew up in Wisconsin. I love cheese. But I didn’t miss it. Probably the one thing I’ve missed over the 30 days is beer. But even that, I survived without.

So now what? Do I go back to what I ate before? Of course not. I’ll slowly be adding in certain things. One beer is first tomorrow. I’ll have a smoothie on Monday with Greek yogurt. Down the road, I’ll probably add in more things, but I’ll definitely be looking at the label.  I don’t want to go back to the way I felt before. I want to keep this feeling. Ultimately, I’d like to be between 200-225 pounds, so I still have more weight to lose. But as the weather warms up and I continue to walk/run the dog and do more yard work outside, I don’t see that being a problem.  So go check out Whole30 and see if it’s for you!

Week 4 check in

Wow! We’re 4 weeks into the new year! How have your goals and resolutions gone? Did they go by the wayside? Or are you still going strong?

For me, with my primary goal, it couldn’t be better. I’ll give a more detailed wrap up of Whole30 in my post on Wednesday, but I feel amazing. My clothes fit and people at church yesterday said I should be called “The shrinking man” and “Slim”. I don’t know if I’d go that far.....yet, but I do notice a difference. I have plenty more to go, but slow and steady wins the race. Except that my slow and steady plan of losing 8 pounds by now (2 pounds per week) was totally blown out of the water by losing 16.6 pounds. Now, I knew I’d probably lose more than 8, but had I made my goal 20 pounds, I’d be frustrated and probably quit, because I “failed”. Nevermind that I’ve lost weight, clothes that I couldn’t wear now fit comfortably. My psyche would have told me that I missed my goal and I was a failure. That’s what my friend Jon Acuff talks about in his book “Finish”. When you’re setting goals, you want to have your goal, then cut it in half. When you feel like you’re beating that goal, it helps motivate you to continue on. But the Whole30 has helped immensely with that. More on that on Wednesday.

As for my garage project, that didn’t get much done on it this week. But it has definitely improved since the 1st of the year. There is less stuff and more space to walk around out there. And there has been progress inside the house as well, because of the colder weather outside. But there’s lots to do as we have our deadline to be out of this house by the end of June. Plenty will get done! It will just take the same process as losing weight. Slow and steady.

So how about you? What were your goals for this month? What are your goals for next month? What’s your plan to be successful? Mine are to lose 8 more pounds, and to bring order and decluttering to our home office, which is a total catch-all space. Comment with what you’re going to be working on or your success story from the past 4 weeks!

Sentimentality

Last Friday and Saturday, I went up to my mom’s house to help her go through things. I’ve been trying to get over there about once a month to do things for her and check on her since my dad passed away. Last Saturday morning we started going through things a little bit. And what happened? We got rid of some things, but a lot more were hung on to because of.....sentimentality.

My dad’s first wife left him in the early 70’s and took everything. Literally. I can’t imagine going through that. But that changed him. Anything that was furniture, and that was in the family was very tightly hung on to by my dad. And for almost 41 years my parents were married, so my mom was a part of that as well. So in 1987 when my dad’s dad died, a lot of things came into our house. When my dad’s mom died in 1999, more things came into our house. And now, my mom has all of this stuff. And what do you do with it? Do you hang on to it because it was in the family, and even though it’s really not needed, you feel obligated to hang on to it?

At the end of my paternal grandmother’s life, she needed a walker. As I shared before she passed away in 1999. That walker stayed at our house. In the fall of 2016, my dad was needing a walker. Guess what he pulled out? That same walker. So he hung on to a thing for 17 years as a “just in case”.  And when we were going through things in the garage last Saturday, there was a small box labeled.....”walker parts”. You guessed it, it were extensions for the very same walker. And what did my mom say? “I’m going to hang on to that because I may need a walker.” Frustrating, but when you’ve lived that life and have that mentality, it’s pretty much impossible to change.

So am I saying that you shouldn’t be sentimental about things? Absolutely not! I have things that I am sentimental about, but you have to remember the purpose and place of things. Just because it has been handed down through the family, if you don’t need it and can’t find a use for it, don’t take it. I know that sounds harsh, but you end up with a whole bunch of clutter that makes your life difficult. Memories aren’t the things, they’re inside of us.

In going through things with my mom, I’ve told her that yes there are things that I would like, but it’s a matter of what we’re going to use. And once we buy our house, we’ll have a better idea of what our needs are. But I’m not going to be sentimental about it. I’m going to be practical.

We’re moving!

Well.....not immediately. More like June, but we’ve found out that we’re approved to be able to buy a house. When we signed our lease last June to rent the house we’re in, we decided that was the last lease we were going to sign....for a variety of reasons.

But now....we have a deadline. It’s real now. And there’s a ton to do in going through our stuff to figure out what is beneficial and useful and as we look for a new house, we’ve made a list of things we want. My girls want stairs, my wife wants a big kitchen, I want a big yard for gardening and entertaining.

When we started our list, we asked the girls about what they wanted in a house, it took a while to get them to understand that everything will move......but does it really? Of course not! There’s plenty that will be leaving the house before we move.

It’s a matter of making and working a plan. And that’s where we’re at.  We’ll get there and it will be a lot of work, but in the end,  it will be worth it.

Week 3 check in

Here we are. Week 3. 21 days since January 1st. Things seem like they’ve flown by. So how are you doing with your resolutions/goals? Still keeping up? We’re almost there, so keep going strong!

For me, the Whole30 has been exactly what I needed. I’ve got only 9 days left, and it’s made so many changes. On the scale, I’m down 4.6 pounds since last Monday, and down 16.2 pounds for the month so far. My goal was 2 pounds a week, so according to my goal, I should be down 6 pounds. This weekend was the biggest challenge for me, which I met with flying colors. I went to my mom’s Friday afternoon and came back Saturday. Traveling is usually the time where I want to be snacking. So I took along diet friendly snacks, and made it just fine. Once I got to my mom’s I got some steak and potatoes, and made my dinner, breakfast and lunch on Saturday. And it was great! The off the scale things have been so much more. I have so much more energy throughout the day. My clothes fit better. I’ve had to tighten my belt....as well as regularly wear a belt! I’m excited to get up in the mornings. I’ve had many people come up to me and say that I’m looking good. Overall, this journey has been off to a huge start. And that’s been my priority for this year. When we’re talking about minimalism, the primary focus many go to is stuff. And that’s important. But if you’re not taking care of you, you won’t have the mental or physical energy to deal with the stuff, and most importantly, you may not be around to deal with the stuff.

For the physical stuff, this week I didn’t really get much done in the garage. This week was messed up. Martin Luther King Jr. holiday on Monday, followed by no school Tuesday and Wednesday, along with ice and cold. I did get a good bit done in the garage on Monday, and got my bags of pine needles out of the garage on Friday. So it’s looking much better, but there’s still more work to do. Which I’ll get to this afternoon. But we were able to get things done inside the house while we were stuck inside for a little while. It’s all about progress and making baby steps.

Keep up work on your goals! We’re almost there! Comment with how you’re doing!

What really matters

I had a conversation yesterday with our organ repair guy that returned me to the question in the title of this post. You see, his 22 year old son was diagnosed with leukemia before Thanksgiving. He had told me that previously, and I was talking to him about an issue with our organ. I asked him, “How is your son?” And he told me all of the details. They have a bone marrow donor and the prognosis is good. But he said something that triggered my thoughts. He said, “I’ve been going just one day at a time.”

Isn’t that really what we should be doing? We plan, prepare and get stuff and hold on to stuff. And where does that get us? Now I’m not saying get rid of everything. There is a need for things, but when you ask the question, “Does it really matter”, that puts a lot of things into perspective.

As I posted yesterday, my girls were off of school for the past 2 days because of ice. I was able to get some work done, but I was also able to spend time with my girls, along with my wife. That is at the core of what we have to figure out. What really matters. What is most important. Yes, we need to work. Yes, we need to be responsible and diligent in everything we do. But we also have to think about what really matter and what is most important in our lives.

So how do you figure that out? That’s the million dollar question, isn’t it? You could make a list, if you’re a list maker. You could write out note cards and put them on your refrigerator or mirror. Whatever you choose to do, it’s up to you and you can remind yourself and keep yourself focused on what is most important is however you choose to do it.

Change of plans...

How well do you adapt when plans change? I’m awful at it. I’ve gotten much better as I’ve gotten older, but still there is this internal temper tantrum when things have to change. Outside, I’m pretty cool and comfortable. But what does plans changing have to do with minimalism?

We have our plans and our ideas and goals that we want to accomplish. Most of the time, they don’t always go in that straight line that we’ve planned or projected. Usually it looks something like this:

We have those ups and downs along the way. Those slow downs and get back to its. How we respond is important to how successful we will be. This has been on my mind a lot over the past couple of days. Monday, my girls were off school for the MLK holiday. I forgot that my wife was off as well. So I was able to do more in the garage and outside than I had originally planned, which was fantastic. I knew it was going to get cold this week and there was a potential of freezing rain and ice, which is not normal for Houston. And Monday late afternoon, school was cancelled for everyone for Tuesday. And it got nasty outside. For Texas. But because it was cold, working in the garage wasn’t going to be the most fun or really most productive. I needed to work inside. So I started working in our office. I dealt with files and paper that needed to be dealt with. Of course my work to-do list got much longer, but I was able to get a few things done remotely. Organ practicing for Sunday morning...not so much. I don’t happen to have an organ at my house! And now we fast forward to today. ANOTHER day off of school. It’s still icy, but should clear up by later today. So I’ll be able to get out, but even this morning, I was still able to work on some more projects. The girls got their rooms picked up yesterday, so that’s a huge first step for them. But the garage still sits.

The garage was my goal for the month. Now, I could pout and be frustrated that I didn’t get much done in this great extra time I had. Or, I could stop, take a breath, and realize that there are still 14 days left in the month, and warmer weather to come. I’ll have time on Monday, and the following Sunday/Monday. What I want to get done will happen. I just have to be patient and go with the flow. But gosh, that’s really hard. Tomorrow morning, everyone will be back in a normal routine and our 2 day work/school week will commence. But it’s all about being adaptable and able to change with how life goes. You can do it!